Polynomial formulas for signed pancake stacks requiring five to nine flips

Let RkB(n)R_k^B(n) denote the number of signed permutations of size nn whose burnt-pancake distance from the sorted stack is kk. Polynomial formulas conjecture. If n1n\geq1, then

R5B(n)=16n(n1)(n2)(6n217n+3),R^B_5(n)=\frac{1}{6}n(n-1)(n-2)(6n^2-17n+3), R6B(n)=160n(n1)(n2)(60n3343n2+401n+284),R^B_6(n)=\frac{1}{60}n(n-1)(n-2)(60n^3-343n^2+401n+284), R7B(n)=1240n(n1)(n2)(n3)(240n31499n2+925n+5104),R^B_7(n)=\frac{1}{240}n(n-1)(n-2)(n-3)(240n^3-1499n^2+925n+5104), R8B(n)=15040n(n1)(n2)(n3)(5040n452123n3+113415n2+314716n1027242),R^B_8(n)=\frac{1}{5040}n(n-1)(n-2)(n-3)(5040n^4-52123n^3+113415n^2+314716n-1027242),

and

R9B(n)=140320(n1)(n2)(n3)(n4)(40320n5444061n4+644746n3+6638777n218991470n).R^B_9(n)=\frac{1}{40320}(n-1)(n-2)(n-3)(n-4)(40320n^5-444061n^4+644746n^3+6638777n^2-18991470n).

These formulas were obtained by polynomial fitting and also explain the zero entries in the cited data table; the source provides no proof or resolution, so the conjecture remains open.

Sources & referencesView supporting material

Primary source

Saúl A. Blanco, Charles Buehrle and Akshay Patidar, “On the number of pancake stacks requiring four flips to be sorted”, arXiv:1902.04055 (2019).

Progress summary

Never refreshed

Nothing recorded yet. Refresh searches the literature and the public web for attempts on this problem, and writes the first summary here.

Solutions 0

No solutions have been posted yet.